Boston College no match for Tar Heel aces

No curveballs, no problem.

The No. 1 North Carolina baseball team swept a doubleheader against Boston College on Saturday — before Sunday’s series finale was rained out — though neither Tar Heel starting pitcher threw many curves.

UNC ace Kent Emanuel threw eight scoreless innings to lead the Tar Heels (21-1, 7-1 ACC) to an 11-0 win in the first game, and Benton Moss worked seven tough innings of two-run ball as UNC won the second game 5-2.

But they almost never got to play — the series had to be moved from Chestnut Hill, Mass., to Chapel Hill because of unplayable field conditions.

“We’re very lucky to have played,” coach Mike Fox said. “I want to commend Boston College because they didn’t have to travel here.”

But they did, and because of the move, UNC played as the away team in its own stadium. But that was no issue against the reeling Eagles (3-17, 0-8 ACC), who have now lost 10 straight games.

The Tar Heels might need their pitchers’ best stuff as they play better teams down the stretch. But against the Eagles, two-pitch pitching was enough.

In the first game, Emanuel worked off his fastball and slider — a pitch he doesn’t throw often — and left his curve mostly by the wayside. Emanuel’s sweeping curveball is sometimes his primary pitch, but he said he didn’t need it against the Eagles.

That was partly because he got outs with his fastball early in the count against the weak-hitting Eagles and partly because he was facing a lefty-heavy lineup.

“I like my slider more against lefties than my curve,” Emanuel said.

He said he prefers the slider because it breaks harder away from lefties’ bats, and against the Eagles, he threw the slider almost exclusively to left-handed hitters.

Emanuel had no trouble dealing with the Eagles with his slider and fastball, especially after Brian Holberton staked him to a 7-0 lead with a long three-run homer in the sixth inning.

Moss pitched in a similar curveless fashion. His command was off, especially early, and his curves helicoptered up in the zone.

But he went to his fastball and changeup, and — backed by Skye Bolt’s two RBI singles and Colin Moran’s 400-foot RBI double off the center-field fence — ended up with a quality start.

Moss didn’t go away from the curve entirely — he threw some, including a beauty he snapped off against Joe Cronin to strike him out looking. But it was still his least-used pitch, not his secondary one.

“Normally (my curve is) like my fastball — I can put it wherever I want to — and I didn’t feel like I had that,” Moss said. “But I made up for it with other pitches.”

Contact the desk editor at sports@dailytarheel.com.